Sheep Shearing in New Zealand: Ewe Need a Haircut?

Surprisingly, our sheep farming days weren't entirely over yet!

We had missed an opportunity to shear sheep and be shed hands during our first go 'round in Invercargill, New Zealand when we were captured at the launderette. So, we jumped at the invitation to be shed hands during a shearing at Gay and Ron's farm, Manuka Mire. Once we received her text, away we flew to Invercargill to get our hands in that wool again! As we were making our way to the farm riding down the familiar country roads we both looked at each other. It hit us at the same time. An overwhelming sense of comfort had over taken us. Warm and fuzzy memories of wooly ewes, overalls, gum boots, green paddocks, home made jelly and mince pies all started flooding back. We were pumped to be heading to the farm again!

Fulfilling our role as shed hands was quite an adventure. Can't say we have helped give a sheep a hair cut before! We were all smiles all day (probably from Gay's wonderful hospitality of keeping us loaded on hot tea and delicious biscuits)!

The ewes ready to go in the wee morning hours.

Robbie and Matt prepping their shearing gear in the wool shed. 

Callie the sheep dog is ready to go, too!

7:20 am start right on time. Not a second late!

Squished and ready for their hair cuts!

These two aren't so excited and are eager to escape their naked fate. Adam and I both had our fair share of tackling some of the ewes to keep them inline. 

Robbie working the belly wool. 

We were the shed hands. Sweeping up the wool as it was sheared off the sheep. 

Working hard, the guys sheared over 350 sheep and did each one in less than three minutes!

This ewe loves it! Not:(

Two minute break! These shearers are strict on time. Still loving this #nuventures!

These girls are the after-lunch crew. 

Lovely wool ready for the press!

Ron, the farmer, shoving the wool into the press. Got 5 bails of wool from the shearing!

When the day was done, I requested they shear Adam, but I guess they thought I was joking. I wasn't...

Now the girls are naked. Ladies, modesty, please!

Rounding 'em up to go into a new paddock. 

Our new wheels for the day!

So pumped to be back on the farm!

Gay leading us through her farm she calls Manuka Mire. 

Pit stop rounding up some strays. 

Gay showing us the lookout they built to see all the ducks in their lake. 

Of course can't leave out these girls. The curious cows on Manuka Mire. 

Loved being a part of Manuka Mire's shearing! Who knows, maybe more sheep to come in our future:) Now on to some Fiordland nuventures!

New Zealand's Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk: A #nuventures Tramping Tale

NOTICE: The following words must be read in your best Scottish accent.

Now, let’s begin.

Once upon a time in a far away land, there was a little bearded lad. His name was Adam. Now, little lad Adam fell deeply in love and married a lovely princess. Her name was Lindsey. Oh, little lad Adam adored Princess Lindsey and her long brunette locks and Lindsey loved Adam and his burly beard just the same.

It gave them great joy to walk and talk and dream together hand in hand in the forests beneath the canopy of the beech trees. They loved listening to the songs of the birds and to be enclosed in the symphony of the chirping crickets. Little lad Adam and Princess Lindsey even lived in a little old van by the river.

One day they decided to walk around the grand Lake Waikaremoana, known across the land as a Great Walk.

Lake Waikaremoana

Now, Great Walks were known to be long, distant tramps in faraway lands not for the faint at heart. The great walks lead trampers through beautiful and epic forests, up into the alpine and over mountains, along great rivers and around grand, majestic lakes. These walks and lands are to be respected by all who journey on their paths. The treks are known to be grueling, difficult and even treacherous. Hand in hand, the two were up for the great challenge.

Now, little lad Adam was strong and ripped with burling muscles from head to toe and was known far and wide as the most adventurous lad in the land. For Lindsey, although she was a princess, she was known to sneek on her hiking boots under her gowns and much preferred them to her royal slippers. With the wind to their backs, the two filled their sacks with provisions and strapped on their packs for their several day adventure. Off they went skipping into the forest singing tra-la-la-la!

STOP! Stop! The fairy tale, the accent, it all must end here!

We hiked until our feet were begging to fall off each night. We were tired. We were cranky. We had blisters on top of blisters forming. Thankfully, each bend of the trail brought new spectacular views of Lake Waikaremoana and the surrounding forests. The views were worth every bit of trauma to our feet.

The ugly ducklings settled here. There were tons of black swans!

Enormous trees filled the bush!

Exhausted by the final night. Collapsed on the front porch at the hut. 

View from our campsite. 

The final morning. Looking forward to crossing this sucker soon!

Last bit of trail on a bridge. 

Once the 46 kilometers were complete, we found our stashed kayak in the bush, blew her up and headed down the stream into the lake to get back to our campervan, Bernie.

wpid-20141212_112931.jpg

It felt like we were back in college being forced to fulfill a torturous team building experiment. We stuffed ourselves and our huge packs into our puny kayak with knees to chins expecting ourselves to paddle across this monstrous lake. The first thirty minutes were fun, adventurous, stunningly beautiful and just lovely.

YAY! The kayak hasn't sunk yet!

Then came the next hour of half smiles, beginning to sweat and trying to stay positive. We weren’t even into the main part of the lake, yet.

Fake it til we make it!

The next hour was full of desperate searching for the lake’s current (do lakes even have a current?), more resting than rowing, and constantly praying the wind would just blow us to the other side. The phase of complaining and hopeless heads down had begun. It didn't help that the cheap aluminum paddles kept breaking off into the water so we were constantly back tracking and doing circles to rescue them. Adam started having a silent melt down in the back of the boat.

We just were not getting any closer to the shore. We were stuck, (groan), in the same spot, (grunt), of the lake, (whine), and just couldn’t, (wimper), get any closer (sniffle) to land. (blubbering)

This was our view forever. We just couldn't get there!

Adam pulled himself together and led us through our final thirty minutes. Survivor mode, ya’ll. We dug deep and mustered up courage to get to the other side with our new regiment: 20/10’s. Twenty rows and a ten second break, twenty rows, ten second break, twenty rows, ten second break. Count with us now! 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…

Land!

YAHOOO!!!

We crossed the huge bugger of a lake in our record time of 3 hours with tears in our eyes, exhausted shoulder muscles and new rippling biceps!

What a mountain top moment! We were on land again!

So happy and relieved to be on the other side!

Now, the adventure wasn’t over just yet. Princess Lindsey had held her composure through the entire three day journey. Until, it came to her battle with the solar camping shower in the car park. The blasted bugger of a daggum bag with a cheap plastic hose got the best of her. Princess Lindsey fulfilled her role perfectly. Every fairy tale’s princess is entitled to her temper tantrum.

New Zealand's Tongariro Alpine Crossing: A #nuventures Tramping Tale

Here it is! Our tramping tale of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing amongst the volcanic giants in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand.

We never imagined to encounter this deeply dry, volcanic and sulphuric landscape in New Zealand. We always think of majestic mountains with beautiful views of the water, streams and oceans beneath. This was a new view of the country!

The Crossing spans the length of the active volcano Mount Tongariro and runs next to another active cone Mount Ngauruhoe, famously known as Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings. It's pretty intimidating in person, too!

In all honesty, the day was bizarre! We felt like we were in lines at Disney World or Ikea, only on a volcano. The hike was a slow, single file line of thousands of trampers navigating the Crossing one after another. We were a tiny pair in what seemed like four thousand. We had to stay strategic, though, to remain ahead of hundreds of teenage girls on their adventure camp's culminating trip. Ah! It was a hilariously different hiking in nature experience with the girls' blasting speakers following us for the climb. " Too hot... too hot...'Cause Uptown Funk gon' give it to you. Saturday night and we in the spot. Don't believe me just watch!" Ow!

Beautiful day for a hike! Mount Doom showing it's composite-cone-self above.

Here we go! Mount Doom straight ahead!

What?! We ran into our friend Alister who we met a month earlier on the Pinnacles hike. This country is a small world!

The smell of sulphur permeated the air. Nausea building...

Going up and up in a world of desolate rocks!

What a dag!

The looming Mt. Doom was working the camera all day!

Work it...

Plateau before the summit. 

What I imagine the moon like- dry, dusty, lifeless. 

Can't stop staring. It was like finally looking at the volcano we saw in our school books. 

Hit a saddle and could see the other side of the mountain. 

Now, just straight to the top. 

View at the summit looking back at all the steps we'd covered. 

View of the way down. 

Away we go skiing down! The blue lakes were just stunning!

Aren't they?

The sulphur smell still building...

The colors were so brilliant!

So pumped!

The view looking back at the volcano. Looks like the top blew right off!

See the dark black area? Recent lava flow... crazy! Right?

Last of the blue lakes. 

Made it to the other side of the mountain with no eruptions in sight! All down hill from here. 

The volcanoes are still steaming. An eruption could happen any time.... but not today! Thankfully!

A Week on a New Zealand Sheep Farm: Captured at the Laundrette

Captured at the launderette, I tell ya. I walked out of the laundrette angry for wasting our money and time on washing and drying our clothes for them to still not be clean. Jipped! Stomping out of the launderette with my brows scrunched, I thought, “Oh, geez. Who's Adam talking to now?” There was an enthusiastic, white haired man talking to Adam next to our van. I wasn’t quite in the mood, so I went to the opposite side to listen in from the driver's window. From the first moment of exchanging hellos, my mood transformed and David immediately felt like family.

David was drawn to strike up conversation with Adam, because he was eying our camper van, Bernie. David and his wife had traveled Europe in a refurbished ambulance (awesome!) and he was eager to reminisce and share stories.

“Oh, you could have done your laundry for free at our house. Come on home and stay with us.” Well, if you read one of our latest posts Just Say Yes, you know exactly what our response was. With a request like that, we were zipping down country roads following David and Nancy to their sheep farm!

The lovely Nancy and David

Turns out, we had just been dreaming, praying and brainstorming how we could get to Alaska for five months to be a part of Calypso Farm's training program to learn everything from planting, harvesting, caring for farm animals, wool processing, wood carving, paper making, and metal work. Doesn't it sound amazing? This new farming pursuit started with a wish to learn how to knit and weave, but then became an excited curiosity to learn about every stage of making wool. I didn’t just want to know how to knit. I wanted to know the whole gambit of wool from raising sheep, farming, to sheering, to making the wool, to knitting wool products. Hey, let’s learn it all!

First night on the farm.

Meeting the sheep. 

Well, God had something else in mind and answered our prayers immediately in the most random way, as usual. Turns out, we didn’t need to spend five months in Alaska to learn our interests and capacities in farming. We figured it out in just a week with David and Nancy. Boy, did they take us to school in all the subjects of life!

BB, their pet sheep. She loved her morning milk!

BB! BB!

Now, hold your horses. The school bell hasn’t rung yet.

To get a feel, each day's main events were tea, tea time, and the biscuits (cookies) to go with the tea! Here's a general schedule of each day. Anything that wasn't tea, well, you do as much as you can before the next tea. We just thought this lifestyle was grand! We loved it!

Tea Schedule:

• 8 am: Brekkie
• 10:30 am: Tea
• 12:00 pm: Dinner
• 3:30 pm: Tea
• 5:30 pm: Tea

Each tea time would consist of David telling stories, reciting joke after joke and ragging on us like any granddad would. The times I was fast enough to throw a joke back at David, he would throw one right back at me. We never got ahead of him. Gee, he was quick. Nancy continually gave David the eye, with a, “Stop darling,” and nailed him under the table in the shins. The continuous joke over the week was we were always shocked David still had shins after all these years. Celebrating fifty years of marriage, the two hug one another and say, “I love you” often. After tea, David would retire to the organ, Nancy would follow suit and begin playing and singing the old hymn, "He Walks With Me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own..." We still have the song running through our heads!

In between teas, David led us through lessons.

Lesson 1: Rounding 'em Up!

The most efficient way to round up sheep is in the morning when they are fresh, but the most important ingredient is with your trusty sheep dog, Jazz. What a girl! She would hear David’s holler, “Round da bout! Round da bout, Jazz!” and would jump over fence after fence to get to the sheep and round 'em up!

Jazz, the black dot out there, working the sheep. 

Loyal Jazz following the four wheeler. 

Jazz, what a girl!

Lesson 2: Counting Sheep

No, not in your sleep. We found counting sheep to be a skill of experts. Adam and I needed more than one week of practice. Let’s just say, Adam and I both failed the task over and over. Turns out counting chaos is difficult and David couldn’t trust either Adam or I to get the job done, especially when I claimed 47 and Adam would claim 51. Thank you for grace, David!

Can you count them all?

Lesson 3: The Works

A part of sheep farming is sending sheep to the works (aka butcher). Jazz would round 'em up into the race. Then, the man from the works would evaluate each sheep by feeling their ribs. If you can feel the ribs, they aren’t ready and need more time to feed in the paddocks. If you can’t feel the ribs, they are ready and marked to head to the works. Did you know that the meat lamb is from young sheep, the lambs? The meat mutton is from adult sheep. Learn somethin' new every day, I tell ya.

Stand off. 

Sheep in the race. 

See the sheep way down there, jumping over the fence? She knows she's going to the works and she wants outta there!

Lesson 4: Jack of All Trades

Sheep farmers are truly Jacks of All Trades. You gotta be able to do everything from building sheds and fences, be artificial breeding experts, know how to shear sheep, be a pro at ear piercing for tagging, be an accountant to track production, have investing skills, and be environmentalists to care for the environment and the land you have. Oh, these are just a few skills to have in your tool belt as a sheep farmer. Don't forget the #8 Wire!

On our way to work on the fence after tea!

Driving the four wheeler with a homemade top for the winter and rainy weather. Gotta have that #8 wire!

The sheep loving Adam!

Field Trip: Making Homemade Jelly

On a trip to recycle, we met a neighbor Angie. Did we find gold! We were invited onto Angie and Gary’s dairy farm the next day to make homemade jelly of fruit, flowers, and rose petals all from her edible garden! Now this gets us pumped about permaculture! We were lucky enough to taste our first glasses of real, unpasteurized milk, too. Delicious and just like a milkshake.

Picking fruit for the jelly. 

And picking more!

Rose petals smell so good!

My bucket of flowers and fruit from Angie's garden. 

Chopping up the fruit. 

This is awesome! Meet Guy and For from Israel!

Adding boiling water to the mix. 

Draining the liquid from the skins of the fruit and petals. 

Pouring the jelly. 

Homemade J-E-L-L-Y!

And we finished the jar in less than a week! Thank you Angie!

Adventuring 'round the dairy farm with Gary and his pup!

The milking girls:)

Hiking to Chrissie's Hut... Gary's hunting lodge. 

Chrissie's Hut in progress. 

Lesson 5: Shearing Sheep

Let's just say it's an advanced dance with the sheep and 35 blows should do it and she's back through the gate but naked:)

Almost got to shear a sheep and be shed hands. We'll take seeing the best shearers in the world instead!

Lesson 6: Not Chickens, Hens!

How many times did we hear that? Ha! “They aren’t chickens, they are hens! Chickens are the chicks and hens are the hens." Okay, okay. Collecting the fresh eggs each day became a favorite task. Did you know farm fresh eggs don’t need to be refrigerated?

Nancy and David sell dozens of their farm fresh eggs each week to raise money for missionary children living around the world. Their commitment to praying for and supporting the children was remarkable.

Going in and gettin' them eggs!

Trying to catch the hens. 

The hen's winning!

Adam loved the hens! So did Jazz!

Lesson 7: Love

Nancy and David became family within the week and through their immediate care, love, and hospitality, they have modeled a new way we want to host in the future. “We’re just us.” “This is us.” These phrases rang through our ears all week from David. Nancy and David opened their home to us spontaneously and have hosted 600 travelers from Israel over the last six years that are traveling New Zealand and need a night’s stay in Invercargill. They get a call, “Tonight? Tomorrow? Yes! Come on over!” Whatever the status of their home and whatever they are up to, their guests just jump right in as a part of the family and are included in every part of the day. Guy and Dor quickly became family, too!

Granddad and Granddaughter

Picking out the sheep's tag colors for their earrings in the wool shed. 

Driving with David's granddaughter.

After the week, our exam was to debrief and reflect on the overload of information we received. Now, we dream of the future days of getting up and jumping in our gum boots to go out to the hen house to collect fresh eggs. We have dreams of fruit trees and veggie gardens we can grow and harvest. We came away with an amazement of God’s love, His timing, and being able to meet His family on the other side of the world and immediately feel at home. We know we will look back and this week will be one of the most memorable experiences we have had throughout our nuventures. Thank you Nancy and David!

Missing our nightly walks on the farm.